I have been going to Taiwan since the early 1980s and have been gratified and delighted at the emphasis a new generation of Taiwan citizens is putting on the environment and conservation. For the last several years I have been visiting the mountains and other birding hot spots with private bird guides as a way of developing a more intimate relationship with the extraordinary natural face of the island. The ornithological experience in Taiwan has been superb and I have always come away wondering why there is not more buzz in the birding community about Taiwan as a bird watching destination.

Well perhaps things are changing.

On his November 2017 Bird Watcher's Digest podcast, publisher and editor Bill Thompson III (may he rest in peace) regales listeners with his experience birding in Taiwan at the invitation of the country, including Eco-Tourism Taiwan's Victor Yu who I had the chance to meet and bird with several years ago when I was first trying to identify a guide for my visit.

Thompson was joined by several professional bird tour operators, all of whom were visiting Taiwan for the first time. For some, including Bill, it was their first visit to Asia, period. All of them left the island nation believing that Taiwan is the perfect gateway country for discovering the joys of birding in Asia, a contention that I share unequivocally. Below is a copy-and-paste link to a video version of This Birding Life Episode 74 "Birding Taiwan" from Bird Watcher's Digest:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NE3dBRuYQs

Taiwan

The Asian birds of Taiwan as seen through the eye and camera of Jared Keyes

The Five-colored Bird, as it is known to locals, lays out the basic and persistent soundtrack of Formosa's lower elevation forests and parks. Its song is a two part echoing, hollow trill of clucks delivered 60 times per minute in constant one second bursts: five steady 'cuk's and then a descending cuk-ed trill. Its formal Chinese name is ”The Woodpecker Pretender“ due to its choice of nesting in tree holes.

There are eleven possible species of cuckoo to be seen on Taiwan, three of which vary in little but size - in fact, their Chinese names are simply 'Big', 'Medium', and 'Small' Cuckoos. We first espied this individual a quarter mile away at the tip of a large snag-topped tree in the western foothills of Daxueshan (Great Snow Mountain). The cuckoo proceeded to pay us a personal visit, landing a stone's throw away on another snag, this time at eye level.

The word cuckoo in Chinese - 杜鵑 - also means azalea. One apparent root of this shared moniker is a myth involving a Chinese emperor who returned after death as a cuckoo to visit his beloved concubine in her garden, but then proceeded to sing so unceasingly that he bled onto the bushes, turning them red. Oh dear!

Where the foothills rise up in the eastern part of Taichung city, is the beginning if a 50 kilometer access road which snakes and climbs its way out of the urban plain and penetrates the Great Snow Mountain National Forest. At its terminus, the road ends at a visitor center and observation deck at 2,600 meters. A few kilometers from the top are a series of guest houses and cabins that make up one of the most attractive and well-maintained mountain tourist facilities in Taiwan. For anyone who has spent time in Taiwan's urban centers, waking up in the cold, clear mountain air is heartening and even inspirational.

The entire Great Snow Mountain area is a mecca for birdwatchers, with the variety and volume of birds evolving and changing all the way up the access road. Hot spots highlight the entire ascent, with pull-offs and wooden platforms installed for improved bird viewing and photography. Each kilometer marker seems to herald in a new species: Swinhoe's Pheasant at marker X, Mikado Pheasant at marker Y, Taiwan Bush Warbler at Marker Z.

A link to a simple tourist map of the access road and highlights is below:

The orange of Taiwan's Niltavas and Minivets is just eye-popping and bestows a distinctly tropical feel to the mid-mountain forests they inhabit. The Daxuesha access road provides numerous hot spot pull-offs for bird viewing and photography, providing eye-level enounters with canopy-loving birds.

This prinia adds a mottled feather pattern to its uncombed look. The long, ungainly tail is a reliable fieldmark as the bird seems to drag it behind as it moves from perch to perch in overgrown meadows.

This curious and frenetic creature has one of the most variable songs of all birds on the island of Formosa and presents a great test of auditory identification skills. And, yes, a source of constant frustration.

A bird of Taiwan's high elevation mountain forests, this particular tit sweeps by in frenetic flocks and, while seemingly photogenic from these pictures, rarely stays put for more than a brief second. The best a hopeful photographer can do is anticipate the flock, fix the camera on a select branch, and cross fingers that the bird liked your choice of perch.

This little bird is an tireless tail-wagger rivaling our Eastern Phoebe. It is found commonly along mountain and mid-altitude streams and darts about from rock to rock, enjoying alighting onto narrow rock ledges.

This handsome fellow is an inveterate, persistent songster. My first encounter with this redstart was tantalizingly brief in a pouring rain in the Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園) north of Taibei. No sooner did it appear that it retreated back into a dark cedar and was gone. This individual was more cooperative and tarried outside of our dormitory at Aowanda in the cool morning air.

Bitoujioa Scenic Area (鼻頭角風景區) is home to a number of bird species and even more butterflies. The most frequent songster - and one particularly unperturbed by the hot mid-day sun (think Red-eyed Vireo) - is the handsome redstart above.